Page 69 of The Tomorrows After You
I glared daggers at each one of them before pulling Riot’s face down to mine and kissing him so hard I think my bones turned to jelly. It was meant to show off. To show them I didn’t give a fuck about whether they mocked me. To give them something better to blabber about. But as I melted into his body, I began toforget myself.
Riot was stiff at first, caught off guard by my public display of affection. But when his lips parted, and I swept my tongue lightly over his top lip, all the coiled tension in his body relaxed. His strong, calloused hand gripped my waist, almost for stability.
An impressed catcall pierced the air from somewhere behind us. When I felt his smile against my lips, I took a thick swallow and reluctantly pulled away. His sheepish eyes were hooded but shining with something I couldn’t quite place.
“I’ll see you at home?”I rasped. He bit the corner of a swollen lip and nodded once.
I threw one more deadly glare in the direction of the workers standing speechless, awkward in the work bays before turning toward the door. I didn’t spare Chelsea a glance quite yet, a little nervous about how she’d respond to my affection toward Riot.
But she wholly surprised me when she turned to face the shop and yelled,“Hope you got a good look yesterday, boys.‘Cause those were the perkiest tits you’ll ever see again for the rest of your life!”When I pushed the door open, I caught her throwing a middle finger at the men.
As I spilled into the daytime, my heart bloomed, realizing I had more people in my corner than I’d had in a long time.
The Coal Country Caffeine Stop was the best coffee shop in town. And not just because it was theonlycoffee shop in town. It was genuinely a great cup, which I was thankful for after spending a month drinking theswillRiot called coffee. Plus, they had makings for Irish coffee if you knew who to ask.
Chelsea twisted her fingers at our little table when I approached with two more steaming cups of Irish coffee.
“You gonna tell me what’s on your mind? Or just sit there pulling your fingernails off?”I raised an eyebrow in her direction.
“That video.At the carnival...”she drifted off, darting her eyes all over my face like I was a puzzle she couldn’t put together.“How are you okay?”Her question caught me off guard.
“What do you mean?”
She shook her head as if trying to rattle the sense loose.“I...”she cut herself off by taking a big swig of the hot liquid.
She gazed up at me, resolute.
“It was the night of senior prom. I was dating that guy from Charleston?”I didn’t remember, but I nodded like I did.“We hadn’t been dating long, but I really liked him and... well, he said he always wanted to remember our first time together.”Her jaw worked up and down, afraid to continue and I felt my heart sinking.“I... I let him film us.”
My mouth twisted into a frown. Chelsea’s cheeks grew impossibly red. I reached over and put a palm over one of her hands.
“It was a great night. I mean senior prom, you know?”I didn’t; I hadn’t gone after all. I was already knee-deep in pencil skirts and blazers at that time.“Anyway... we broke up during the summer, after he slept with Lanie Mitchell. When I went to college, I forgot all about him.”She took a breath.“Until someone sent me a link on skinflix.me.”Her eyes flashed knowingly in my direction.“I don’t know if he sold it to them or if he sent it to someone who put it up there...”Her curly brown hair shook across her face.“But I was devastated. It was awful; it was shared all around campus, and I had guys coming up to me asking when my next video would get released.”She offered a humorless laugh.
“Jesus, Chels. I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”
She shrugged.“My parents didn’t have the money for a lawyer but this woman, Sadie, reached out to me and said she’d file a court order to get it removed, pro bono, if I wanted. It still took a while, but she got through to the hosting service and turns out they don’tlikewhen their content is revenge porn so they erased it pretty quickly.” She chewed on her lip, eyes glistening as she stared into her coffee. “She offered to‘sue the shit-stained pants off the guy’but I told her I wanted to forget all abouthim.”
I gave her hand a quick pulse.“I’m glad someone was there for you. And I’m really sorry I wasn’t.”
“You know, she reminded me a lot of you. So, in a way, you were.”Chelsea offered a wry smile.“I ended up taking the rest of the semester off, which turned into the year. I opted for online classes after I met Bill.”She lifted a shoulder before letting it slump down.“When I came over this morning, I guess I expected to find you as wrecked as I was back then. I should have remembered you were always so much tougher than me.”
“Hey.”I placed my other hand on top of hers and demanded her attention.“I was never tougher. I think I’m just more of an asshole.”She laughed, and I was relieved to see her smile.“And for the record... I was wrecked. Wholly. You should have seen the fit I threw. I broke all of Riot’s metalwork.”
“I heard,”she said through a watery smile.“I left to go check on the girls who were with Bill’s parents while everyone was at the stage.”Chelsea’s eyes darted down and back up at me as if nervous to ask her next question.“So... you and Riot?”
The sound of his name brought a shy smile to my lips.“Yeah... I don’t know. It’s kind of fresh, I guess. He’s taking me on a date tonight.”Her eyes went a little wide before she recovered with an exaggerated nod. I wished I could help her see what I saw in him.“What are you and Bill doing tonight? Think his parents could take another shift and you two can double with us?”
For a moment her eyes were steeped in longing but her sad smile followed with a shake of her head.“That’s okay. They’re out of town. As much as I’d love to... Bill and I haven’t been on a date inyears. We’ve been saving up to fix our shower. The girls’ bathroom is gettingrealcrowded.”
“The five of you are sharing a bathroom?”I immediately regretted the incredulity in my voice but Chelsea just laughed.
“We did always love‘The Simple Life’, didn’t we?”I thought back to the hours of the reality show we used to watch in my bedroom because Chelsea’s parents never let her watch it.
The morning ebbed to the afternoon while Chelsea and I exchanged more stories from the past. Guilt crept up my throat for how I’d missed the worst period in my best friend’s life. I pictured the excitement she must’ve had for prom night and even though her date had been a colossal asshole, a stab of ostracization pierced my insides.
Senior Prom. Homecoming. Winter Formal. It was a world I’d never been part of. Would that night have gone differently if I’d been there? I pictured myself in a sparkly pink dress. No, I wasn’t made for something like prom.
After we parted ways, another pang of guilt lodged in my chest. I thought about the offers I’d been extended when my sex tape had been uncovered. Would it have made a difference? Would speaking out have done anything to prevent things like revenge porn and leaked sex tapes from happening to other men and women?
